System and method for identifying individual users accessing a web site

ABSTRACT

A web site server is able to identify distinct users by using a unique identifier associated with each client computer system requesting access to a web site. The unique identifier comprises an Internet address, such as an Internet Protocol (IP) address, and a time value associated with each client computer system requesting access to the web site. On starting up a web browser, an application program or browser plug-in may synchronize the internal clock included with the client computer system with a global time standard. A web site server may determine the uniqueness of the client computer system by comparing unique identifier records of users accessing the web site. A user may be identified as distinct if no matching record exists in the database. Users privacy is also protected as the unique identifiers are erased when the client computer system&#39;s user exits the web browser or powers down the computer.

This application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No.13/159,127, filed Jun. 13, 2011 now U.S. Pat. No. 8,095,654, which is acontinuation of U.S. application Ser. No. 09/588,879, filed Jun. 6,2000, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,962,603 which are incorporated herein byreference in their entirety.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention generally relates to the field of the Internet.More particularly, the present invention relates to an improved systemand method for identifying unique users accessing a web site.

2. Description of the Related Art

Internet commerce has become an increasingly popular form of commerce inthe United States and throughout the world. In general, Internet-basedcommerce, often referred to as e-commerce, provides advantages to bothsuppliers and consumers. E-commerce provides vendors and serviceproviders the ability to greatly increase their sales channel anddistribution network with minimal cost. An Internet commerce siteprovides a convenient, effective and secure mechanism for potentialbuyers to browse, select and purchase goods or services in an easy andsimple fashion.

An important consideration for owners and/or operators of web sites,which have been designed to handle Internet commerce, is the amount ofweb traffic flowing through the site. There are various metrics used tomeasure web traffic. Various web traffic analysis and tracking softwareis available to provide the owners and/or operators of web sites withdetailed statistics. One commonly used metric, for example, is thenumber of web page accesses or web hits on a page of a web site. ManyInternet sites display a counter to show the number of visitors sincelast counter reset. The number of web hits per page, measured over agiven time period, may have a significant impact on the advertisingrevenues generated by the web site.

Web site logs and other software designed to measure and analyze webtraffic, can provide a wealth of additional information regarding theuser. For example, it may include detail such as the operating system ofuser's computer, web browser software used to access web site,hourly/daily/weekly frequency distribution of web hits, InternetProvider (IP) address of user, country of registration for the user'sInternet Service Provider (ISP), etc.

Although it has been possible to get detailed statistics referencedabove, such as the number of raw hits per web site, the data collectedis often incorrect, inadequate and often misleading. Up to now, it hasbeen difficult to accurately identify and count the number of clientsaccessing a web site. For example, raw hit data shows the number oftimes each file has been requested at a web site. It can give an idea ofthe number of clients visiting a web site. However, it may not be ableto disclose further detail. Assuming 1,000 hits were recorded on a website, the raw hit data may not be able to report whether the hits weregenerated by 10 visitors racking up 100 hits a piece, or by 200 visitorscreating five hits each, or by one visitor creating 1000 hits.

One prior art method to identify unique, distinct or individual users isbased on the use of cookies. Cookies are identifiers placed on a user'scomputer system by a web site that the user may have visited. Web sitesmay use cookies to identify and track a user's movement through the website. The use of cookies is thus considered an intrusive technology.Many Internet users have expressed concerns over the privacy issuesrelated to the use of cookies. In order to protect their privacy, manyusers disable the use of cookies (a standard option in many of thepopular web browsers). Furthermore, some types of browser software andearlier versions of popular web browsers do not support the use ofcookies. Also, users can refuse cookies on a per cookie basis, or modifytheir local cookie file at will. As a result, it has been difficult toaccurately identify and count individual users using cookies.

Another prior art method to identify individual users is to require userregistration before entering a web site. This method, in many respects,is similar to the use of cookies. However, unlike cookies (which havebecome virtually transparent and often unknown to the user) the usermust knowingly enter self-identifying information to gain access to theweb site. Many Internet users have expressed concerns over the privacyissues related to the need for user registration to enter a web site, inaddition to the inconvenience of remembering yet another user ID andpassword. As a result, it has been difficult to accurately countindividual and distinct users who have not participated in userregistration.

Yet another prior art method used to identify individual users istracking Internet Provider (IP) addressed to identify users. However,larger Internet Service Providers (ISP's) such as America On-line (AOL)use a proxy server. A proxy server sits between a client application,such as a web browser, and a real web server located on the Internet.The proxy server intercepts all requests to the real server to see ifthe proxy can fulfill the requests itself. If not, the proxy serverforwards the request to the real web server. It may be possible forhundreds or perhaps thousands of clients, such as AOL clients, to beaccessing a web site simultaneously but may still show the same IPaddress. As a result, it has been difficult to accurately identify andcount individual users who may have been assigned to the same proxyserver.

For these reasons, it would be desirable to provide an improved methodand system for counting individual users accessing a web site. It wouldbe desirable for the improved method and system to use non-intrusivetechnology, which would address the privacy concerns of users, yet atthe same time be able to identify individual users accessing a web site.It would be desirable for the improved method and system to identify andcount all unique users logged on to a proxy server and accessing the website.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention provides various embodiments of an improved methodand system for identifying individual users accessing a web site. Thesystem and the method allow a web site server to identify distinct usersby using a unique identifier associated with each client computer systemrequesting access to the web site. The unique identifier comprises anInternet address, such as the Internet Protocol (IP) address, and a timevalue associated with each client computer system or browser applicationrequesting access to the web site.

On starting up a web browser on a client computer system, an applicationprogram may synchronize the internal real-time clock included with theclient computer system with a global time standard. The synchronizedtime value included in the unique identifier may be based on an eventassociated with the client computer system, such as the start of a webbrowser. Similar time synchronization may occur on web servers.

In one embodiment, one or more records may be stored in a database. Eachrecord comprises a unique identifier corresponding to each computer useraccessing the web site. A new client computer system may request accessto the web site. In response, the web site server may request the newclient computer system to provide information comprising the Internetaddress and the time value. The new client computer system may send therequested information to the web site server. A web site server hostingthe requested web site may determine the uniqueness of the clientcomputer system by comparing unique identifier records of usersaccessing the web site with those stored in the database. A user may beidentified as distinct if no matching record exists in the database.

In another embodiment, the user of the client computer system mayrequest access to a web site. The initial request may include the uniqueidentifier comprising the Internet address and the time value. A website server hosting the requested web site may determine the uniquenessof the client computer system by comparing unique identifier records,stored in a database, of users accessing the web site. A user may beidentified as distinct if no matching record exists in the database.

Advantageously, multiple client computer systems using a common Internetaddress may be differentiated by using this method. Furthermore, user'sprivacy may also be protected as the unique identifiers are erased oncethe client computer system's user closes the web browser or powers downthe computer.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a network diagram of a wide area network, which is suitablefor implementing various embodiments;

FIG. 2 is an illustration of a typical computer system, which issuitable for implementing various embodiments;

FIG. 3 illustrates an exemplary e-commerce network system foridentifying distinctive computer users accessing a web site according toone embodiment;

FIG. 4 illustrates a flow chart for identifying distinctive computerusers accessing a web site according to one embodiment; and

FIG. 5 illustrates a database record for identifying distinctivecomputer users accessing a web site according to one embodiment.

While the invention is susceptible to various modifications andalternative forms, specific embodiments thereof are shown by way ofexample in the drawings and will herein be described in detail. Itshould be understood, however, that the drawings and detaileddescription thereto are not intended to limit the invention to theparticular form disclosed, but on the contrary, the intention is tocover all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives falling withinthe spirit and scope of the present invention as defined by the appendedclaims. Note, the headings are for organizational purposes only and arenot meant to be used to limit or interpret the description or claims.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF SEVERAL EMBODIMENTS

FIG. 1: Wide Area Network

FIG. 1 illustrates a wide area network (WAN) according to oneembodiment. WAN 102 is a network that spans a relatively largegeographical area. The Internet is an example of WAN 102. WAN 102typically includes a plurality of computer systems which areinterconnected through one or more networks. Although one particularconfiguration is shown in FIG. 1, WAN 102 may include a variety ofheterogeneous computer systems and networks which are interconnected ina variety of ways and which run a variety of software applications.

One or more local area networks (LANs) 104 may be coupled to WAN 102. ALAN 104 is a network that spans a relatively small area. Typically, aLAN 104 is confined to a single building or group of buildings. Eachnode (i.e., individual computer system or device) on a LAN 104preferably has its own CPU with which it executes programs, and eachnode is also able to access data and devices anywhere on the LAN 104.The LAN 104 thus allows many users to share devices (e.g., printers) aswell as data stored on file servers. The LAN 104 may be characterized byany of a variety of types of topology (i.e., the geometric arrangementof devices on the network), of protocols (i.e., the rules and encodingspecifications for sending data, and whether the network uses apeer-to-peer or client/server architecture), and of media (e.g.,twisted-pair wire, coaxial cables, fiber optic cables, radio waves).

Each LAN 104 includes a plurality of interconnected computer systems andoptionally one or more other devices: for example, one or moreworkstations 110 a, one or more personal computers 112 a, one or morelaptop or notebook computer systems 114, one or more server computersystems 116, and one or more network printers 118. As illustrated inFIG. 1, an example LAN 104 may include one of each of computer systems110 a, 112 a, 114, and 116, and one printer 118. The LAN 104 may becoupled to other computer systems and/or other devices and/or other LANs104 through WAN 102. Private communication networks, often referred toas an Intranet 304 a, may comprise of one or more LAN's 104 and one ormore WAN's 102.

One or more mainframe computer systems 120 may be coupled to WAN 102. Asshown, the mainframe 120 may be coupled to a storage device or fileserver 124 and mainframe terminals 122 a, 122 b, and 122 c. Themainframe terminals 122 a, 122 b, and 122 c may access data stored inthe storage device or file server 124 coupled to or included in themainframe computer system 120.

WAN 102 may also include computer systems, which are connected to WAN102 individually and not through a LAN 104: as illustrated, for purposesof example, a workstation 110 b and a personal computer 112 b. Forexample, WAN 102 may include computer systems, which are geographicallyremote and connected to each other through the Internet or the Intranet.

FIG. 2: Typical Computer System

FIG. 2 illustrates a typical computer system 150, which is suitable forimplementing various embodiments of a system and method for identifyingdistinctive computer users accessing a web site. Each computer system150 typically includes components such as a CPU 152 with an associatedmemory medium such as floppy disks 160, CD-ROM (not shown), etc. Thememory medium may store program instructions for computer programs,wherein the program instructions are executable by the CPU 152. Thecomputer system 150 may further include a display device such as amonitor 154, an alphanumeric input device such as a keyboard 156,communication device such as a modem 159 and a directional input devicesuch as a mouse 158.

In one embodiment, the computer system 150 may be a client computer 306,operable by a computer user, to execute the computer programs toidentify distinctive computer users accessing a web site as describedherein. In another embodiment, the computer system 150 may be ane-commerce server 302 operable to execute the computer programs toidentify distinctive computer users accessing a web site as describedherein. Other embodiments of the computer system 150 may include, butare not limited to, a proxy server 312, a local Internet server 322, amainframe computer, a personal computer, and several others as describedherein.

The computer system 150 preferably includes a memory medium on whichcomputer programs according to various embodiments may be stored. Theterm “memory medium” is intended to include an installation medium,e.g., a CD-ROM, or floppy disks 160, a computer system memory such asDRAM, SRAM, EDO RAM, Rambus RAM, etc., or a non-volatile memory such asa magnetic media, e.g., a hard drive, or optical storage. The memorymedium may include other types of memory as well, or combinationsthereof. In addition, the memory medium may be located in a firstcomputer in which the programs are executed, or may be located in asecond different computer which connects to the first computer over anetwork. In the latter instance, the second computer provides theprogram instructions to the first computer for execution. The computersystem 150 may also include a time keeping device such as a real-timeclock. The real-time clock of the computer system 150 may be,periodically or on demand, synchronized with a global standard timeclock. Also, the computer system 150 may take various forms, includingbut not limited to a personal computer system, mainframe computersystem, workstation, network appliance, Internet appliance, personaldigital assistant (PDA), Internet enabled PDA, web television system,Internet enabled cellular telephone or any other similar device. Ingeneral, the term “computer system” can be broadly defined to encompassany device having a processor, which executes instructions from a memorymedium.

The memory medium preferably stores a software program or programs foridentifying distinctive computer users accessing a web site as describedherein. The software program(s) may be implemented in any of variousways, including procedure-based techniques, component-based techniques,and/or object-oriented techniques, among others. For example, thesoftware program may be implemented using ActiveX controls, programminglanguages such as C++, Java, VB, etc., object oriented software based onCOM/DCOM and/or CORBA objects, JavaBeans, Microsoft Foundation Classes(MFC), browser-based applications (e.g., Java applets), traditionalprograms, or other technologies or methodologies, as desired. A CPU,such as the host CPU 152, executing code and data from the memory mediumincludes a means for creating and executing the software program orprograms according to the methods and/or block diagrams described below.

FIG. 3: Network System for Identifying a Distinct Computer UserAccessing a Web Site

FIG. 3 illustrates a simplified and exemplary Internet commerce ore-commerce network system for identifying distinctive computer usersaccessing a web site according to one embodiment of the presentinvention. The system shown in FIG. 3 may utilize one or moreidentification techniques to identify distinct computer users ine-commerce applications.

As used herein, the term “Computer User” is intended to include anyperson who can operate a computer 150 to gain access to an Internet website hosted by server 302. In one embodiment, the access to an Internetweb site may be provided by a proxy server 312. As used herein, the term“web site” is intended to include all Internet 304 as well as Intranet304 a sites, including e-commerce sites and groups of non-commercial Webpages, which can be accessed by a Uniform Resource Locator (URL).

As shown, the system may include an Internet server (local) 322, a proxyserver 312 and an e-commerce server 302. All three servers shown arevarious embodiments of the computer system 150. The e-commerce server302 is preferably maintained by a vendor who offers goods or servicesover the Internet. One example of an e-commerce vendor is Amazon.com,which sells books and other items over the Internet. In one embodiment,a web site may not directly offer goods and services for sale at the website. For example, it may be a portal site to serve as a facilitator forbuyers and sellers rather than offering goods and services directly forsale on its web site. The web site may only provide information toclient computer users by providing URL links to buyers and sellers. Asearch engine web site, as another example, may only provide links torelevant web sites or its advertisers but may not sell goods or servicesat its own web site.

As shown, the e-commerce server 302 may be connected to a network 104,preferably the Internet 304. The Internet 304 is currently the primarymechanism for performing electronic commerce. However, the presentinvention may be used with any of various types of LAN's and/or WAN's,such as the Internet 304 and/or the Intranet 304 a, which connectscomputers and networks of computers together, thereby providing theconnectivity for enabling electronic commerce to operate.

A client computer 306 may also be connected to the Internet 304 directlyor via a local Internet server 322. One or more client computers 306 amay be connected to the Internet 304 via a proxy server 312 and anIntranet 304 a. The client computer system 306 user may launch orexecute Web browser software for allowing a user of the client computer306 i.e., a computer user, to browse and/or search the Internet 304. Theclient computer system 306 also enables the user to conduct e-commercetransactions over the

Internet 304. For example, an e-commerce transaction may include arequest for information, a purchase of a product, a payment, a serviceappointment request, etc. When the user of the client computer 306desires to obtain information and/or purchase a good or service from avendor over the Internet 304, the Web browser software preferablyaccesses the Web page of the respective e-commerce server, such ase-commerce server 302. The client may access the Web page of thee-commerce server 302 directly or may access the site through a proxyserver 312 or some other third party like a search engine. When theclient Web browser accesses the Web page of the e-commerce server 302,the e-commerce server 302 may recognize the computer user 306 as adistinct user. The web hit counter may be incremented by one for eachdistinct user.

The e-commerce server 302 may subsequently provide various data andinformation to the client browser on the client system 306, possiblyincluding the products (goods and/or services) offered, descriptions andprices of these products, and other information that would typically bevaluable to the purchaser of a product or a service. As used herein, theterm “product” is intended to include various types of goods orservices, such as books, CDs, content subscription services, furniture,online auction items, clothing, ISP service, consumer electronics,travel, software, medical supplies, computer systems etc., or variousservices such as loans (e.g., auto, mortgage, and home re-financingloans), securities (e.g., stocks, retirement accounts, bonds, and mutualfunds), or insurance (e.g., life, health, auto, and home owner'sinsurance), among others.

The e-commerce server 302 may be operated by an e-commerce vendor, or onbehalf of the e-commerce vendor by a third party company, such as a website hosting service provider, an application service provider, etc.

FIG. 3 illustrates an exemplary embodiment including one e-commerceserver 302, one client computer system 306, one proxy server 312connected with one or more client computers 306 a via Intranet 304 a,and one Internet Server (Local) 322 which may be connected to theInternet 104. However, it is noted that the present invention may beutilized with respect to any number of e-commerce servers 302, proxyservers 312, and clients 306 or 306 a.

This embodiment provides a number of benefits to web site hosts as wellas users. First, the counting of web hits is more accurate. Users loggedon through proxy servers, such as America On-line clients, would be morelikely to be identified as unique users despite having the same Internetaddress. This may enable more accurate web hit counting. Allocation ofadvertising revenues may thus potentially be improved by keeping anaccurate track of the number of web hits and number of unique users.Second, this embodiment may offer a safer, privacy-enhanced browsingenvironment to users by using a non-intrusive method for trackingdistinct users. In contrast, prior art methods rely on the use ofintrusive technology such as cookies, user registration, etc., and thusdo not accommodate user privacy concerns.

FIG. 4: Flow Chart for Identifying Individual Users Accessing a Web Site

FIG. 4 is a flow chart illustrating a method to identify individualusers accessing a web site, according to one embodiment. In step 400,the e-commerce server 302 may store records in a database wherein eachrecord corresponds to a distinct computer user requesting access to theweb site. FIG. 5 illustrates an example of one embodiment of such adatabase for use in counting unique users.

Criteria for the definition and measurement of a distinct computer usermay be established by various organizations such as the InternetAdvertising Bureau, the web site vendor, etc. Due to the fast changingInternet technology no universally accepted definitions currently existfor widely used terms such as web hits.

Every element of a requested page (including text, graphics, andinteractive items) may often be counted as a web hit. Web hits may notbe the preferred unit of site-traffic measurement because the number ofweb hits per page varies widely. Web hits may often be confused withpage views. A page view is the number of times a web page is requested.Page views, not web hits, may often be the preferred counting method forweb site-traffic estimates and measurement. For example, a distinctcomputer user may access a web site ten times during a specified timeinterval of 30-minutes. One web site vendor may count those as one webhit whereas another web site vendor may count those as ten web hits. Aweb site vendor may establish that multiple accesses by the same userwithin a specified time interval (e.g. thirty minutes) may be counted asa single hit for tracking purposes.

Attributes or properties that may be associated with a distinct computeruser may be specified in a variety of ways. Prior art methods, whichrely on the use of cookies and/or user registration, are considered asintrusive to the privacy of the computer users. Specifying an Internetaddress 500 and a time value 510 associated with a distinct computeruser is a unique, non-intrusive and non-persistent method to identifyindividual users.

The definition of the time value 510 attribute is unique for eachdistinct computer user accessing a web site during a specified intervalof time. In one embodiment, the time value is derived from asynchronized, global time standard like the one maintained by the UnitedStates Naval Observatory or by Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). When theclient computer 106 user launches a web browser to gain access to a website, an application program or plug-in may be concurrently launched tosynchronize the computer's or browser's real time clock with the globaltime standard. In one embodiment, the time value attribute may bespecified as being associated with a unique event associated with theclient computer 306. The launch of the application program for timesynchronization or the launch of the web browser software may beexamples of such events. It is highly unlikely that two distinctcomputer users, with a common Internet address, would launch the webbrowser software to access the same web site at the same instant intime. As such, the combination of using the Internet address and thesynchronized time value is a unique, non-intrusive method to identifyindividual users. Client computers 306 a, which may be served by asingle proxy server 312, may still be identified as distinct users sinceeach client computer user 306 a will have a unique combination ofInternet address 500 and time value 510. Since web browsers may beopened and closed at-will by the user, the time value associated witheach of the client computers 306 a may vary and is not persistent likethe cookies.

In another embodiment, in addition to the client computer synchronizingtime with the global time standard, the time keeping device includedwith the proxy server and/or the web server hosting the web site, mayalso be synchronized with the global time standard. The timesynchronization for servers may occur automatically based on a specifiedperiodic time interval or may be synchronized based on an event.

In another embodiment, the time value may indicate the synchronizedreal-time at which the web site access request was generated. In thisembodiment, it may be possible for the web site vendor to identify theapproximate geographic location, relative to GMT, of the client computeruser 306. Varieties of other embodiments to specify a time value 510 arealso possible.

In one embodiment, each record 520 stored in the database comprises anInternet address 500, such as an Internet Protocol (IP) address, and atime value 510. In one embodiment, the time value may reflect thereal-time at which the client computer's time clock was synchronizedwith the global time standard. Each record 520 stored in the databasecorresponds to a distinct computer user accessing a web site or group ofweb sites. The number of records included in the database will varycorresponding to the number of distinct computer users accessing a website. The records stored in the database may be dynamically and/orautomatically modified. As additional client computer 306 users seekaccess to the web site, new records can be added. As existing clientcomputer users may have not visited the same web site after the initialaccess and within a specified time period, their corresponding recordmay have been deleted.

In step 410, the e-commerce server 302 receives a request from a newclient computer 306 user to access the web site. In step 420, and inresponse to step 410, the e-commerce server 302 sends a request to thenew client computer 306 user to provide information to uniquely identifyitself. In one embodiment, the information includes an Internet address500 and a time value 510 associated with the client computer 306.

In step 430, the e-commerce server 302 receives the requestedinformation from the new client computer 306 user. In step 440, thee-commerce server 302 determines whether a matching record for the newclient computer 306 user exists in the database. In one embodiment, thedetermination can be made by performing a query on a relationaldatabase. In another embodiment, the determination can be made byinvoking a method associated with the computer user object using anobject-oriented database. In step 450, if no matching record is foundthen the computer user is identified as distinct (e.g., an advertisingcounter corresponding to the number of unique hits may be incremented).If a matching record is found in the database, the matching record maybe examined for a timestamp 530. In step 444, the timestamp may becompared with a predetermined maximum time Tmax. Currently no industrywide definition exists for defining Tmax. It is specified individuallyfor each web server. However, as more web advertising related Internetstandards are developed it may be possible that industry adopts a timestandard Tstd for Tmax. For example, an advertiser and web site host mayagree that to qualify as a unique user, the user must not have accessedthe web site within the previous thirty minutes. If the last access forthe user was more than Tmax (e.g., thirty minutes ago), then the usermay nevertheless be counted as a unique user in step 450. Otherwise, ifthe unique user has accessed the web site within Tmax, then the user isnot counted as a unique user. In step 460, the record is alreadyaccessing the web site and is not to be identified as distinct. Note,the terms distinct and unique are used interchangeably herein. Furthernote that steps 444 and 460 are optional in some embodiments. Forexample, in some embodiments no timestamp may be involved (i.e., once auser has accessed the system, they are not counted in step 450 untilthey either exit their browser or power down their computer, which leadsto a new time value for the next access). In yet another embodiment, thedatabase may simply be purged on a periodic basis (e.g., daily). Duringthe purge process, all records may be cleared, or only records olderthan a predetermined time Tmax maybe purged.

In another embodiment, step 400 may be implicitly performed but may notbe explicitly identified as a separate step. In yet another embodiment,steps 410, 420 and 430 may be combined into one step, wherein thee-commerce server 302 receives a request from a new client computer 306user to access a web site. Furthermore, the initial request alsoincludes information such as an Internet address 500 and a time value510, which uniquely identifies the new client computer 306 user.

As illustrated above, the method to identify distinct computer usersaccessing a web site may also be applied in various businessapplications. In one embodiment, steps 400 through 450 may also beapplied to illustrate a new business method for counting web hits at aweb site (e.g., to track unique users for advertising revenue). Inanother embodiment, the above method to identify distinct computer usersaccessing a web site may also be extended to specifically measure hitsfrom emerging client computer embodiments such as Internet appliances,cellular telephones with a browser or wireless PDA's.

Although the system and method of the present invention have beendescribed in connection with several embodiments, the invention is notintended to be limited to the specific forms set forth herein, but onthe contrary, it is intended to cover such alternatives, modifications,and equivalents as can be reasonably included within the spirit andscope of the invention as defined by the appended claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method comprising: receiving, from a firstcomputer: a request to access a web site, and a first Internet addressand a first time value corresponding to said first computer; determiningwhether a matching record for said first Internet address and said firsttime value exists in a database; and identifying said first computer asa distinct user if said matching record does not exist in said database.2. The method of claim 1, wherein said first time value is associatedwith a user-defined event.
 3. The method of claim 2, wherein saiduser-defined event is a launch of a web browser software on said firstcomputer.
 4. The method of claim 1, wherein said first time value isgenerated by a time keeping device, wherein said time keeping device isconfigured to synchronize said first time value with a global timekeeping standard clock.
 5. The method of claim 1, wherein said firstInternet address is an Internet Protocol (IP) address.
 6. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the database is an object oriented database or arelational database.
 7. The method of claim 1, wherein said firstcomputer is a personal computer, a laptop computer, a notebook computer,an Internet-enabled cellular phone, an Internet-enabled personal digitalassistant, or an Internet-enabled television.
 8. A system, comprising: aweb site server computer system; wherein the web site server is operableto: receive from a first computer: a request to access the web site, anda first Internet address and a first time value corresponding to saidfirst computer; determine whether a matching record for said firstInternet address and said first time value exists in a database; andidentify said first computer as a distinct user if said matching recorddoes not exist in said database.
 9. The system of claim 8, wherein saidfirst time value is associated with a user-defined event.
 10. The systemof claim 9, wherein said user-defined event is a launch of a web browsersoftware on said first computer.
 11. The system of claim 8, wherein saidfirst time value is generated by a time keeping device, wherein saidtime keeping device is configured to synchronize said first time valuewith a global time keeping standard clock.
 12. The system of claim 8,wherein said first Internet address is an Internet Protocol (IP)address.
 13. The system of claim 8, wherein the database is an objectoriented database or a relational database.
 14. The system of claim 8,wherein said first computer is a personal computer, a laptop computer, anotebook computer, an Internet-enabled cellular phone, anInternet-enabled personal digital assistant, or an Internet-enabledtelevision.
 15. A non-transitory memory medium, comprising programinstructions, wherein the program instructions are executable by acomputer system to implement a method of: receiving, from a firstcomputer: a request to access a web site, and a first Internet addressand a first time value corresponding to said first computer; determiningwhether a matching record for said first Internet address and said firsttime value exists in a database; and identifying said first computer asa distinct user if said matching record does not exist in said database.16. The memory medium of claim 15, wherein said first time value isassociated with a user-defined event.
 17. The memory medium of claim 16,wherein said user-defined event is a launch of a web browser software onsaid first computer.
 18. The memory medium of claim 15, wherein saidfirst time value is generated by a time keeping device, wherein saidtime keeping device is configured to synchronize said first time valuewith a global time keeping standard clock.
 19. The memory medium ofclaim 15, wherein said first Internet address is an Internet Protocol(IP) address.
 20. The memory medium of claim 15, wherein the database isan object oriented database or a relational database.